San Francisco edged out as “smartest” city

In the latest of the unending series of competitive city rankings, San Francisco comes in second (Runnerup? Can you believe it?) in the list of smartest cities in North America.

The smartest? Boston. Yeah, that place with the old ballpark, beans, lobstah and narrow streets.

The study was conducted by Co.Exist, a website dedicated to covering “groundbreaking innovation.” As opposed to those other kinds of innovation, apparently. Author Boyd Cohen, a climate strategist, used data grouped into six areas: smart people, smart economy, smart environment, smart government, smart living and smart mobility to come up with his rankings.

Snark aside, Cohen hailed Boston’s “impressive entrepreneurial ecosystem,” which includes city-backed innovation incubators and extensive partnerships between the city and innovators to come up with solutions to problems experience by city government and its residents.

Of course, as Cohen points out, “it helps that Boston is home to more than 70 universities and colleges, eight of which are dedicated research universities with $1.5 billion in annual R&D expenditures.” Including, ahem, Harvard and MIT, which he doesn’t mention by name. City College of San Francisco has nearly 70 campuses, but I guess that doesn’t count.

So what about us? San Francisco is a vibrant city with a high quality of life and a thriving entrepreneurial economy. San Francisco has become a destination for technology and civic-minded entrepreneurs: Aside from the well-known tech-world heavyweights, it is also the home to numerous organizations like Code for America, which definitely bodes well for its smart future.”

Cohen notes that San Francisco is a standout in environmental leadership, including energy, buildings, waste and air quality.